Cairo troubles

Oops, I'm a week late but hasn't alot happened since then. I am currently iting in in my lounge with the news on in the background which has a constant flow of images from Tahrir Square in Cairo. It definitely does not look pretty and I know that it's these are the images that everyone back in the UK are seeing too. Everything is fine where I stay and the only problem around here is that there are little police and security about so it is important that I just make sure that I don't go anywhere alone.

It's been an interesting time over the past two weeks (since the anniversary of the revolution in Egypt) and so much crime has been going here. On Tuesday, 2 hsbc banks were robbed and on the video footage you can even see one of my school buses because it happened just around the corner from where my school is. They were caught but things like this have never happened in Egypt before. The kidnapping of Chinese tourists is another incident too. An on a more personal note, a friend of mine was robbed just around the corner of her house. It was just bag that got stolen as a car drove past her. Note: don't carry a bag anymore. I need to go boy- style!

Jump shot in front of the Pyramids :D

On a more positive note, last Wednesday on our day off due to the revolution anniversary, myself and 8 other girls took a trip to the Sakara Pyramids. Steve, husband of one of the girls, cycled to meet us and took some fantastic photos which are on facebook. I managed to successfully enter a pyramid despite my huge fear of small enclosed spaces!! What an achievement hehe! Together with 2 others, we faced our fear :D

The past week has been quite a difficult one, I decided to go on a detox but I was already feeling rundown before doing so. I still have a cold and gave up the detox on day 3. I will definitely retry when I'm better.

Finally, I will start dance rehearsals again with Swaggers tomorrow and I can hopefully update you more on these positive notes. :)

Lazy day after a long week

It has indeed been a long and busy week regarding work and this weekend was definitely needed. After facing intense parents for 4 hours spread over two evenings after the school days, energy levels were at a low when it came to teaching enthusiastic 6 year olds. I managed to squeeze in a visit to El Rehab (another city within Cairo about 45 minutes from my place) to see some guys from the crew for dinner, an evening of excellent guitar playing (not that I can strum or change chords quickly enough to save my life) and some challenging competition around the pool table. I managed to get to the black ball in 2 out of 3 of my games played with the third game just ending in disaster. Our tournament pool team, Cue Tips are made up of girls and even though we are the only female competing team, we still manage to bring some firey challenge to the other teams. However, Tuesday night was an epic fail...ouch!

The weekend was nice and relaxed in comparison with an early night on Thursday after some pool practice and an early morning rise on Friday for some long awaited netball games! It was just a practice session before the beginning of the tournament next Friday, but I definitely need to work on my defending skills! The day ended in a busy party for 2 couple's engagement celebrations where loads of people from school got together. As for today, I have attempted to run another 10km but failed at 2.5km and felt sick out of the blue. I felt fine after walking back that same stretch and now it is time for some epic movie and duvet banter. Chilling and getting ready for hopefully a more relaxed week ahead.

Hope all is well in the land of the English speakers :D

Freezing!

It's Saturday morning and I am sitting on my sofa and it is freezing! Can you believe that my fingers have actually started to go white? That has only happened when I've lived in the UK and when I went to China in the winter. I did manage to pull myself out of bed this morning and run 10k! That's 2 more than last week, so improvement is looking well.

Last night my friends organised a surprise party for my friend's 30th birthday. I got so excited, I just love surprises. Actually it was really her husband that organised everything, we just showed up. He had an itinerary for the whole day and she had no idea about anything. She was super surprised when we were all waiting for her in her house hehe and she was so happy!

Well it's been a long week in school and everyone is just trying to settle back into routine but the cold weather here is at an all time low making it much harder to get up out of bed in the morning. I hope the warm weather comes back soon, I don't like feeling lazy! Anyway, I must go and organise my day and do something productive. :)

Happy 2012

It's been a great start to the day...managed to run 8 km in the Wadi Degla before 10am struck and even threw a few chores in there when I got home. I've got a few New Years Resolutions but I have no idea if they will stick or not. One of them is to update this blog once a week because it is blatantly obvious that I just can't keep up with a everyday. Hahah I don't think I even lasted a week doing that! Another is one from last year which is to keep in touch with people better. I'm just rubbish at it and need to be proactive instead of lazy! I get caught up in what is going on around me that I just lose touch with the rest of the world...not cool. So that's the plan, I just need to be more proactive which can reach into other areas of my life.

I want to be more organised in work so that it doesn't become so stressful (but who knows if that will actually help!). I want to improve my dancing technique too so that I'm no longer just a beginner. There are so many things that could be improved in myself but I think that's human nature to see our own faults more than what we have already achieved. I think that it is important that we are always growing and learning new things otherwise life just seems to get a bit boring.

I'm in a place where I know that I have so many things to be thankful for; I am so privileged in many ways and often it is easy to forget. I need to try and appreciate more all the things I have in my life and see things in a positive way as much as possible and live every moment to the max. I think that sounds like a good way forward...

Festivities

Yes....it's been a while again...my bad, eeek!
It's 8.30am on Friday morning, first day of the weekend and I'm awake. I was in bed last night at 9.30! That's how tired I've become as the term is coming to an end. School has been hard work and now that our inspection is over, I think everyone is now ready for a holiday. We thankfully passed our accreditation and are just waiting on the report now. Speaking of reports....that's is currently my overhanging job to do until next Thursday. Fun times!

I wanted to share my first ever Thanksgiving experience which I had last Thursday. You see, I have a new American friend and she decided to host a big dinner party where everyone brought their own dish. It was fantastic because it was such a nice atmosphere and everyone had the chance to say what they are thankful for. Personal I don't think that we do this enough. It's such a valuable experience and helps you look on the bright side of everything. I had such a fun evening and felt like I've made some real friends here (which to be honest I was a little lonely a few months ago).

Next Thursday, I am travelling to Lebanon to film our performance for Arab's Got Talent. I still can't believe that we are going! There will be 8 of our from our crew and half of us have never traveled before so there is excitement all round! Wish us luck ;)

Welcome Back

Hello again everyone!

It's been a very long time, I know. I have had a long summer holiday and been back in Cairo for just under 3 weeks now. I felt it was about time for me to start blogging again. To be honest I don't think I'll ever be a natural at doing this regularly so I'm just going to have to accept that . I will continue to make the effort of course in trying to remember to do it!

As I write, I am sitting on my balcony after a long day at work. I am definitely settling back into the swing of things but it is still as tiring as ever. It's very interesting to come back to the school for a second year and experience the beginning of the school year in a totally different way. I am no longer the person who doesn't have a clue what is going on as well as trying to take in an overload of information, but instead I have come back into Year 1 to familiarity for the first time in my teaching career. My new class are nice with he bonus of a few interesting little characters to keep me on my toes and pretty much knacker me out!

Not only is it different in the sense that I'm in a comfort one, career wise but also strange that my circle of friends is totally different. In fact, if I'm honest I'm still feeling my way about. I have had a lot more 'me time' than last year which suits me down to the bone and I still dance with the crew. I wasn't sure if that would work out because rehearsals were being held twice a week from 9- 11pm...definitely not achievable in my eyes. Thankfully, these times have changed within the last week and I am now able to get my very much needed sleep! We are supposedly performing at a shopping mall on Friday evening but it's not yet confirmed. For now though, our main aim is to practise for Arabs Got Talent in the hope that we passed our audition in July.

My room

Open area, used for a bit of exercise (why not eh)

The lounge

Dining area (with lounge behind camera view)

The main balcony with Subway in clear view

On a different note, I have just taken some photos of my flat incase you were interested! 

My New flat!

The summer holidays...at last! It's been over a week now since I have been off school and a lot has happened in that time. I'm currently chilling in my very very spacious and bright new flat which i have been dying to move into ever since I first viewed it about a month ago. It has 3 balconies!!! which I spent all day on Tuesday cleaning and  so I got covered in dust but it was well worth it. To have a balcony i'm sure sounds very lush and exotic to those at home but if you think about the weather in Egypt it is so important to get flow through air in such hot conditions and when I look around me, nearly every apartment has one of some sort. It's not a luxury here, just a normal add on to any building. But my old flat had a tiny one that joined on to both the boys' rooms....so not the easy to get to really.

Since I've moved in i have had a friend round to help me tidy and some of the guys from the crew came round last night to train together and to have some giggles of course. The actual side of my lounge and living area is bigger than one of the dance studios we used to rehearse in. Unfortunately with does have a mirrored wall but we'll get by! It is important that we spend more time together to get to know each other outside of rehearsals! We auditioned for Arabs Got Talent on Monday and it went okay but it could have been better. I think we were all just a little nervous to be honest. It's the first time we have entered a serious competition. We find out if we got through in September apparently so here's hoping we will. Inshalla as the Egyptians say (God willing...)

Before all that, I spent the weekend at the beach! Two different beaches actually. I stayed with 2 different mutual friends at their holiday homes and relaxed..... Yes I also got a little sunburnt but that of course is inevitable! I think I'm one of very view foreigners that has actually decided to stay in Egypt through some of the summer holidays so everyone else I have seen has been Egyptian. It's kind of nice in a way and I have chosen to spend some extra time here to catch up on valuable 'me time'. I have constantly been surrounded by people which is nice but I have missed spending time on my own and so while I am here in July I intend to train in dance as much as I can and relax too so that i am fully refreshed and ready to see all you guys again! i asm looking forward so much to seeing you!